Over the past 12-months Wake Forest's Gerontology and Geriatrics program has reached a number of important milestones. In Jaunuary of 2008, Wake was designated as a John A. Hartford Center of Excellence in Geriatric Education and Medicine (PI: Williamson) and in May of 2008, Wake Forest's Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center (P30 AG21332, PI: Kritchevsky) was renewed for its fourth cycle with its theme, "Integrating pathways affecting physical function for new approaches to disability prevention. Our programmatic goal is to provide for an integrated career development pathway in clinical aging research for both physician and non-physicians. Using both institutional and external resources our program has implemented activities designed to engage medical students and residents in clinical geriatric research and to support junior faculty development in aging research. Currently, the missing piece of the training continuum is at the fellowship / post-doctoral level. Therefore, we are requesting funds to support establishment of a geriatric fellow / post-doctoral training program designed to provide critical research skills in clinical aging research to provide a solid foundation for a future career in academic medicine. Our program's aims are: Aim 1. Establish a post-doctoral fellowship training program in gerontological / geriatric research with an emphasis on the prevention of functional decline. Subaim 1a. Recruit, train and mentor 2 geriatric fellows in a 2-year research fellowship designed to develop skills in a) critical reading of the scientific literature, b) hypothesis development, c) research design and execution including the ethical conduct of research, d) data analysis and presentation, and e) grant writing. Subaim 1b. Recruit, train and mentor 2 non-physician researchers from areas out-side of geriatrics/geriatrics in a 2-year post-doctoral program designed to develop a) an understanding of key problems in aging research of high clinical relevance, b) hypothesis development, c) research design and execution including the ethical conduct of research, d) data analysis and presentation, and e) grant writing.